How to travel the world AND keep your full-time job

Do you ever check your social media and see it inundated with “inspirational” posts about how you should quit your job and travel?

*hands up*

And do you ever think…

Not in a million years, girl.

I mean – if you’ve got a career, a family and financial goals, quitting your job to travel the world is just not realistic.

Sure, it’s a possibility for some people.

But what if it’s not for you?

You shouldn’t have to quit your job to see the world.

You can keep your job AND travel the world

In 2015, the year before “the big move” to Boston, I had been working in finance for a couple of years. I never once thought I had to quit my job and travel the world.

In this one year, I traveled overseas to 8 different countries (and this is not even including the domestic trips I took!), AND I managed to have a fulfilling and successful career.

I don’t tell you this to brag

Here’s the breakdown of countries* I traveled to in 2015:

Germany (10 days)

Austria (2 days)

Japan (10 days)

Malaysia (4 days)

Singapore (3 days)

Finland (7 days)

Sweden (7 days)

Estonia (2 days)

That’s a whopping 45 days of vacation leave!

Now, I was living in Melbourne, Australia at the time, so all these countries are at least a 7 hr flight from my home city. Over half of them required me to travel 20hrs or more each way.

* This list also doesn’t include weekend trips.

Why am I telling you this??

Girl, we need to have a talk.

Having a full-time job doesn’t stop you from traveling the world.

If anything, it helps you travel the world.

Now, I don’t say this to brag – but in 2015 I had a pretty amazing year at work.

I was in a job that I loved, I was being challenged every day, and was getting stretch opportunities from my boss. I got that promotion I was working towards and was fortunate enough that my hard work was recognized through my yearly bonus.

Why am I telling you this?

Because I honestly think you can have it both ways.

Traveling the world shouldn’t stop you from leading a fulfilling, successful career.

I usually have a travel planning session at the start of the year or the end of the year

I map out all my public holidays, all my forced vacation leave days.

Then, I map out potential vacation ideas.

Choose your destinations wisely

You’ll notice from my list of countries that I visited that some of these countries aren’t too far from Australia. Countries like Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore can be visited over a short period.

I saved these closer locations for the times of the year where I could take time off around long weekends/ public holidays.

The overseas locations I visited when I had the opportunity for longer breaks, such as Christmas where my work had forced vacation time.

When you’re planning, choose destinations that are close-by for your long weekends.

Alternatively, if you want to take more than a 3-day break, take some vacation leave around the public holiday.

This means your 4 day weekend can turn into a 10 day holiday, and all you’ve done is take 3 days of vacation leave!

2. Work, work, work and more work!

I’m not going to lie.

For you to travel as much as I have, you will need a supportive boss.

Your ability to travel lots begins with more than YOU

You need a supportive boss and team.

But you also need to be mentally present at work all the time.

Make sure you check with your manager how they want you to approach leave.

How far in advance do you need to book in leave?

Are there certain busy periods?

Do you need to check with other teammates?

Do you need to check with your manager’s leave?

Have a solid relationship.

Also, don’t work for teams that are strict/tight about you taking leave if you can help it.

This is not always possible, but where you can help it before you accept a job, check with people who have worked with or currently work with your manager as to what their general approach to work-life balance is.

Is this a team that is constantly working?

Do the team members ever speak about taking time off?

If you can do this before you accept a job, your life will be a lot easier when it comes to living a life of travel.

Take pride in your work

Always be prepared and organized – show your manager that when you leave not everything will fall to pieces in your absence.

Yipeeee - you're in! Thank you SO much for joining our community. If you're after a freebie or download, we'll be emailing it straight to your inbox and will also be sending you a link to our kick-ass-awesome Travel Resource Library. Keep a look-out for it in your inbox!

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

First Name

Email Address

We use this field to detect spam bots. If you fill this in, you will be marked as a spammer.

I'd like to receive the free email course. Spam is evil - I promise not to send you spam, just 100% travel lovin' awesome-ness here! Powered by ConvertKit

Follow:

5 Comments

Awesome post! It is refreshing to see someone that does have a full time job and also travels frequently. That is my goal! My career is just beginning and it is important to me but so is traveling a lot while I am young- not waiting till retirement! Great tips!

Hi Amanda, I’m so glad you find my tips useful! And I agree 100% – it’s just not realistic for many travel lovers to quit their jobs. And sometimes if you enjoy your career/ job, you don’t actually want to quit your job! So happy to hear you found my tips useful 🙂 Hope you have a wonderful time on your travels x

I love this article! I always see ads or blogs stating to quit your day job and travel the world. Personally, I have a day job and still travel as much as I can. My job helps fund some amazing vacations and I appreciate that so much! Such a refresher to read! I am in Finance too.. haha!

Hi Gretchen, I’m so glad to hear this resonated with you! It’s so hard to quit a full-time job to travel the world (especially if you have other life priorities) and it’s often not realistic! I totally agree – being able to work gives you so much freedom to travel and fund adventures! I hope you have lots of travel adventures planned for this year! 🙂